Poetry is a literary genre that goes as old as some of the most ancient texts archaeologists ever found. The Epic Of Gilgamesh was written in Sumerian more than 7000 years ago.
It is to this day, the oldest piece of literature ever found. Some of the earliest poetry writers can be traced all the way back to Ancient Greece, almost 3000 years ago.
Since then poetry has flourished, evolved and developed in many different styles, all over the world, from Japanese short haikus to major romantic British poets Percy Bysshe Shelley or William Wordsworth and American poetry figures such as Charles Bukowski, Shel Silverstein or Ralph Waldo Emerson.
Below is a list of five of the most famous poets of all time whose work influenced their poet peers forever.
"If I feel physically, as if the top of my head were taken off, I know that is poetry."
- Emily Dickinson, American poet
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Classic Poetry: Homer, The Iliad & The Odyssey
The origins of Homer are so unclear that some scholar describes him as a myth.
Many legends about this ancient Greek author circulated, one of the most common is that he was a blind wandering bard from Chios, a city on the Anatolian coast of what is Turkey today.
Even the two major poetry works that are commonly attributed to Homer are a subject of controversy. Some academics think that both texts were written by the same man, a poetry genius while others consider that the Iliad and the Odyssey are the work and re-writing of many contributors which eventually were all labelled as belonging to the Homeric tradition.
Nonetheless, those two poems are seen today as a timeless classic, taught in most western schools' curriculums, still inspiring writers, artists, and even movie directors, to this day.
The Iliad is set during the Trojan War and tells the tale of the siege of the city of Troy. Mixing historical facts, legendary stories and Greek mythology, this ancient Greek epic poem is in dactylic hexameter (verse of six feet, each foot being one long and two short syllables).
The Odyssey focuses on Odysseus (most commonly known as Ulysses) and his ten-year journey back to his kingdom of Ithaca.
“Like the generations of leaves, the lives of mortal men. Now the wind scatters the old leaves across the earth, now the living timber bursts with the new buds and spring comes round again. And so with men: as one generation comes to life, another dies away.”
Homer, The Iliad
Willian Shakespeare And Poetry
Maybe the most famous author of all English literature, Shakespeare was a poet, playwright and actor. He is still regarded today as the world's most eminent dramatist.
While he is mainly known by the public for his numerous theatre play, among which Romeo And Juliet, the most famous romantic tragedy of all times, has been adapted countless times, both for the theatre, Broadway and Hollywood.
Shakespeare's plays are still performed today all around the world, and at any given time of the year, it is not surprising to find more than one of his plays being acted on the stage of London's theatres. What the public might not know as much are Shakespeare's sonnets and narrative poems.
Published in 1609, towards the end of his life, Shakespeare's 154 sonnets were probably never meant to be published and the order they have been printed most likely did not reflect their actual chronology nor the author's wishes.
"Unthrifty loveliness why dost thou spend, Upon thy self thy beauty's legacy? Nature's bequest gives nothing but doth lend, And being frank she lends to those are free: Then beauteous niggard why dost thou abuse, The bounteous largess given thee to give? Profitless usurer why dost thou use So great a sum of sums yet canst not live? For having traffic with thy self alone, Thou of thy self thy sweet self-dost deceive, Then how when nature calls thee to be gone, What acceptable audit canst thou leave? Thy unused beauty must be tombed with thee, Which used lives th' executor to be."
Willian Shakespeare, The Fair Youth, Sonnet 5
John Keats And Romantic Poetry
Born in 1795, Keats was part of the second wave of Romantic poets, the artistic movement born in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. His career was short-lived as he died at the age of 25 years old from tuberculosis.
Even though critics did not receive his poems very well during his lifetime, his fame came after his death and he eventually became one of the most beloved of all English poets. His style was characterised by sensual imagery typical of the Romantic movement.
Some of his works became so popular that they ranked amongst the most analysed piece of English literature. Of the most famous piece of poetry he wrote, "Ode to a Nightingale".
'Tis not through envy of thy happy lot, But being too happy in thine happiness, That thou, light-wingèd Dryad of the trees, In some melodious plot Of beechen green, and shadows numberless, Singest of summer in full-throated ease"
- John Keats, Ode to a Nightingale, lines 5 to 10
Edgar Allan Poe, the Gothic Poet
Maybe one of the most famous American poets along with Robert Frost, Walt Whiteman, Langston Hughes or Sylvia Plath, Edgar Allan Poe was born in Boston in 1849. Edgar Allan Poe was one of the first American writers to try to live solely from his writings.
He only succeeded to do so in his late 20's after joining the Southern Literary Messenger (which he was fired for drunkenness, but eventually re-hired). Poe had a tumultuous life, abandoned by his father when he was one year old, his mother died a year later. He was adopted by the Allan family with whom he had a rocky relationship.
Maybe because of his tragic background or because the genre pleased his public tastes, his work often approached themes such as death, the reanimation of the dead and mourning. Most of his work is considered to be part of the dark romanticism genre, in opposition to transcendentalism, which Poe openly abhorred.
During his career, Poe was one of the first American authors to become popular in Europe, especially in France where his work was translated by another famous poet, Charles Baudelaire. He notably inspired the work of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, writer of the adventures of Sherlock Holmes, who said: "Each of Poe's detective stories is a root from which a whole literature has developed.... Where was the detective story until Poe breathed the breath of life into it?".
Not many copies of Poe's first book survived and one of them reached a price of $662,500 in 2009 during an auction in New York. It is believed to be the highest price ever paid for a work of American literature.
“Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary, Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore, While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping, As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door. Tis some visitor," I muttered, "tapping at my chamber door — Only this, and nothing more."
- Edgar Allan Poe, The Raven
Maya Angelou, The Heart Of Modern America
Maya Angelou has had an extraordinary life. Born in 1928, in the Southern state of Missouri, she recounted her troubled childhood in her autobiography and international best-seller, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, published in 1969. Her book, the first of a seven-volume series, described how she overcame racism and trauma through love and determination. Her first poetry work dates from her childhood, during which she used literature as a healing tool.
Her first published work only occurred after she performed various jobs, such as a cast member for the Porgy and Bess European tour and calypso music performer during the 1950's. Her first volume of poetry, Just Give Me a Cool Drink of Water 'fore I Diiie, published in 1971, was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. During Bill Clinton Presidential inauguration, she recited "On the Pulse of Morning" and became the first African American and woman to read a poem at a presidential inauguration. She won a Grammy Award the following year for "Best Spoken Words".
She mentioned in her autobiographies that she was greatly affected by the work of William Shakespeare, Edgar Allan Poe or Douglas Johnson during her childhood. She has had a huge impact on African American literature and her poetry influenced modern hip-hop musicians such as Kanye West, Tupac Shakur and Nicki Minaj.
"A Rock, A River, A Tree Hosts to species long since departed, Mark the mastodon. The dinosaur, who left dry tokens Of their sojourn here On our planet floor, Any broad alarm of their of their hastening doom Is lost in the gloom of dust and ages. But today, the Rock cries out to us, clearly, forcefully, Come, you may stand upon my Back and face your distant destiny, But seek no haven in my shadow. I will give you no hiding place down here. You, created only a little lower than The angels, have crouched too long in The bruising darkness, Have lain too long Face down in ignorance. Your mouths spelling words Armed for slaughter."
- Maya Angelou, On The Pulse Of Morning
The Most Famous Australian Poets
Now let's talk about Australian poets. The list of Australian poets, writers, novelists, essayists or story writers is almost endless and the amount of plays, poems, novels, biographies, tales, essays, prose and verse that they have published throughout the decades is probably beyond our imagination. Here is a list of five of the best Australian poets, according to Charles Sturt University:
1. Banjo Paterson
Andrew Barton ‘Banjo’ Paterson was born in 1864 on a property just outside Orange, New South Wales. Paterson is commonly described as a ‘bush poet’. Much of his work celebrates and romanticises the figure of the bushman at home in the Australian wilderness.
His poems often highlight the independent spirit and heroic underdog status of the bushman. This is one reason why his poetry has become so well loved and why he is thought of as one of the best Australian poets. And his ballad "The Man from Snowy River" could certainly be considered the most well-known Australian poem. Not many poems can claim to have inspired a film!
Orange holds an annual poetry festival that celebrates Banjo’s skills. In addition to writing verse, he also worked as a solicitor and as a correspondent during the Second Boer War. He served in the army during World War I. Banjo died in 1941.
2. Dorothea Mackellar
I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of ragged mountain ranges
Of droughts and flooding rains
- Dorothea Mackellar, My Country
Generations of Australians will recognise these lines from Dorothea Mackellar’s poem "My Country". The poem has been taken to the country’s heart. Especially during World War I when feelings of patriotism ran high, as did the longing for home among Australian troops and the longing for their return among their families.
Mackellar was born in 1885. She travelled widely throughout her life. However, her work showed she was especially adept at evoking the Australian landscape, and with it embodying the emotional connection Australians have to the land – even though that land can sometimes be a hard place.
3. Lionel Fogarty
Lionel Fogarty was born in 1958 at Barambah, now known as Cherbourg, in Southern Queensland. He has been intimately involved in the political struggles of the Aboriginal people. This includes the land rights movement, establishing Aboriginal health and legal services, and the issue of black deaths in police custody.
This political engagement has informed much of his writing and is combined with the innovative use of Aboriginal English language to usurp traditional cultural assumptions. His engagement is evident throughout the nine collections of verse he has published and was fully formed even in his first book, Kargun, published in 1980, which announced a voice that was truly unique.
4. Les Murray
Translated into 11 different languages and winning countless awards (including the prestigious T.S. Eliot Prize), Les Murray’s poetry engages not only with contemporary questions, but also with the act of writing and the linguistic potential of poetry itself.
At once dense and engaging, Murray examines themes like religious values, democracy, the contradictions in Australian society and the influence of Aboriginal culture on not only his own thinking but on the nation’s psyche as a whole.
He also has a deft feel for small-town Australia, those rural places where the Australian notion of independence abuts the realities of carving out a meaningful life.
Born in 1938, Murray grew up in one such rural location, and the proximity to Australia’s wilderness imbued him with a love of nature that is also evident in his verse. Murray published his first solo poetry collection, The Weatherboard Cathedral, in 1969, while his latest, Waiting for the Past, was published in 2015.
5. Oodgeroo Noonuccal (Kath Walker)
Oodgeroo Noonuccal was born in 1920, and named Kathleen (also known as Kath). Her father belonged to the Noonuccal people, the traditional inhabitants of Minjerribah. He worked for the Queensland Government as part of a poorly paid Aboriginal workforce. His campaigning for better conditions for his fellow workers would have a lasting impact on Noonuccal’s life and work.
She didn’t start writing verses until she was in her forties. She had spent her career thus far in secretarial and domestic service roles while raising her children.
Her first collection, We Are Going, was published in 1964. By all accounts, it was a publishing sensation. It sold more than 10,000 copies – a volume rarely achieved for a poetry book – establishing her as one of the best Australian poets of her lifetime.
In her verse, Noonuccal engages with her Aboriginal heritage and the political imperatives of Aboriginal rights, social justice and conservationism.
Other great Australian poets include this list compiled by Poetry Australia:
Henry Lawson
For his short, sharp, and punchy bush poetry, Henry Lawson was said to be the raw version of Ernest Hemingway. A poet who also dabbled in journalism, he suffered psychological and artistic adversity throughout his life.
His humanisation of the Australian landscape was what made Lawson’s ballads so successful. An iconic read is "The Drover’s Wife".
Judith Wright
A poet at the heart of all turmoil and adversity throughout Australian history, Judith Wright was known as the 'conscience of the nation'. Her call to see Aboriginal people equal to European Australians was groundbreaking. It was Judith’s passion which helped shape the Australian landscape to be a more hospitable place for both women and Indigenous people.
Her most famous poems include "Bullocky" and "The Moving Image".
Gwen Harwood
Regularly nominated for literary awards, Gwen was an Australian poet who spent most of her time living in Tasmania. She was a radical feminist, and an unconventional writer famous for her poem "Suburban Sonnet", capturing themes of motherhood, female empowerment, and Tasmanian suburban landscape.
She has written an incredible 386 poems, most of those speaking out to Australian feminists and mothers.
Dorothy Hewett
Dorothy was a leading poet and feminist in Australia. She was a member of the Communist Party in which that time led her to abandon her Arts degree uncompleted and have six children with her husband.
During these years, she was unable to write. Once her artistic flair regained strength, she became one of the most progressive Australian poets of her time. Her major collections include Windmill Country (Overland, 1968), Rapunzel in Suburbia (Prism, 1975), Greenhouse (1979) and Alice in Wormland (1987).
Peter Porter
Peter was an Australian poet who had spent most of his time in England. He was well respected in the poetic realm, receiving the Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, and was the subject of a special issue of Poetry Review.
His most valued piece of work was a stoic elegy, in loving memory to his deceased wife, "Non Piangere, Liu". His writings revolved around civilisation and the idea of age, loss and the value of art. He blended Australian and English cultures together to construct a unique theme of poetry.
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A poet myself i enjoy it all. I write in Pashto and English. Hope you will be sharing Ghani khan poetry too who was a poet, philosopher and sculptor.. .a student of Robindranath Tagore. Regards